An OLED display uses a relatively new technology called OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes). OLED displays are brighter, more efficient, thinner and feature better refresh rates and contrast than other display technologies.
OLEDs are made by placing thin films of organic (carbon based) materials between two electrodes. When an electrical current is applied, a bright light is emitted. Since the OLED materials emit light, a backlight is not required (unlike LCDs).
OLED-equipped cameras are offered by some of the biggest names in the industry. OLEDs’ major advantages seem to be especially beneficial for digital cameras - a wide color scheme, superior contrast, high refresh rates and more.
OLEDs are mostly used in electronic viewfinders (EVF) - where tiny OLED microdisplays are used as near-eye displays. In the past camera makers also adopted OLEDs as the larger (around 3-inch) main display for the camera, but in recent years most camera makers reverted back to LCD displays as OLED displays in this size range are not in standard production.
Click here to view our list of digital cameras with OLED displays
Latest OLED digital camera news
Sony announced the TX100V OLED camera a few days ago, and you can already pre-order it over at Amazon.com - for $379.99. The TX100V is Sony's flagship compact camera with a 3.5" touch OLED display, 16.2mp sensor and Full-HD videos.
Update: the XZ-1 is now official!
There are rumors that Olympus will unveil the XZ-1 pocket camera at CES 2011. It will be the first Olympus camera to have an OLED display (a 3" one). Other features include a 10mp sensor and 28-112mm f/1.8-2.5 lens.
This won't be first Olympus OLED product, actually. Back in 2005 Olympus announced a series of MP3 players with PMOLED displays.
eMagin says that the new Kinetta digital cinema camera uses their OLED microdisplay. This is a flexible digital movie camera which provides the control and flexibility that cinematographers have always appreciated in their film cameras. The Kinetta camera records everything the sensor puts out, as RAW ten-bit log data, on an onboard miniature hard drive array containing 12 1.8" hard drives.
Kinetta's Jeff Kreines commented: "The OLED microdisplay from eMagin is a perfect fit. We considered many other technologies - LCOS, LCD, CRT, optical - but only the eMagin OLED gave us the combination of excellent color reproduction, lack of flicker, low power consumption, and small size that we needed."
